Thirst review – breaking member of the Icelandic gore fest rip in the 80s | Video

Wthanks willies! This joy comes from Iceland it begins as it is meant to continue: a stop on a quiet back road, where a 1,000-year-old black vampire has lured a middle-aged man into his car with the promise of a quickie. The vampire’s head burrows into the poor man’s legs. “Of course not,” the man pleads, not paying attention. Just three minutes into the film, we see a severed limb – the first of many to come. Filmed in the extreme of the 1980s, with lots of red smoke and loud voiceovers, Thirst is loud and deliberately silly, though I couldn’t help but scream a time or two.

This is a movie that was enjoyed by the first (or second) player, although Hjörtur Sævar Steinason gives a fantastic performance as the vampire Hjörtur, both tired and suffering from spiritual pain. One night, he takes the light of a girl named Hulda (Hulda Lind Kristinsdóttir), who is being persecuted by the local police because of the death of her brother due to drug addiction. When she saw him split the skull of a local gangster in half, Hulda was horrified. But Hjörtur assures her that she only wants men. One of the police officers chasing Hulda is Jens (Jens Jensson), a retired officer. His wife is a religious fanatic in a tracksuit who broadcasts on television that the end is near – which is for some Reykjavík residents.

There is no meaning or message here, no obvious metaphor for vampirism. The only midnight movie is a scene of Hjörtur reviving male victims from their horrific wounds, and another vampire inserting the victim’s (still alive) internal organs. There is a lot of yuckiness, but not any bite. Even a picture or two – I’m thinking of Hjörtur tucking into a hotdog and twisting it (“I don’t eat cooked meat”) – can be heretical.